“Love is (as it were) a knife by which faith shares and cuts out the duties which we owe to God and man in a good and acceptable manner. Love is the tap that lets out the water of God’s graces out of the cistern of our hearts.
Love is the nurse of humanity,
the mother of equity,
the maintainer of virtue,
the daughter of faith,
the preserver of piety,
the mistress of modesty,
the badge of Christianity,
the bane (death) of discord,
the staff of concord (harmony) (Col. 3:14),
the keeper of the crown (Job 13:25),
the bond of perfection,
and the note of a true disciple.
Saint Paul in some sort prefers it to faith and hope when he says, “Now faith, hope and love abide: but the choicest of these is love” (1 Cor. 13:13).”
~William Perkins
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PRAYER is one of the most difficult spiritual activities for the Christian. Prayer is a great privilege for every believer, but it's also difficult for us to be faithful in our prayer life. So, we need to be extra vigilant in prayer! Satan constantly and continually resists our life of prayer. He constantly attacks the praying church.
Prayer is our surrender to the Lord, and it demonstrates our dependence upon the Lord. Prayer is our chief form of thankfulness that we owe to the Lord (Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A 116). Prayer is the very means the Lord uses to bring peace to our soul (Phil. 4:6-7). Prayer is a spiritual activity in which the believer adores and exalts God. Prayer is when we confess our sins to the Lord, cast our cares and burdens upon Him (1 Peter 5:6-8), and prayer is one of the means by which we resist Satan. That's why the Apostle Paul includes prayer in the full armor of God in Ephesians 6. Therefore, it is no surprise that Satan attacks, perverts, manipulates, disrupts, and seeks to distort the Christian's prayer life and the corporate prayer of the church. Therefore, we need to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves in prayer.
One way Christians can strengthen their prayer life is to make a list of things to pray for. This will help stay on point. Put the list in your Bible so when you open to your daily reading of Scripture you will be reminded to pray. Also, pray every time you eat a meal. Take 5-10 minutes to pray through your prayer list. That means you will be praying at least 3 times a day. You can also pray the Psalms. For instance, pray through Psalm 86, which is a prayer of David. You can also pray through other portions of Scripture. For instance, pray through Ephesians 3:14-21 paying attention to all the things the Apostle Paul lists regarding what he prayed for the Christians in Ephesus. That's where you can begin to strengthen and cultivate your prayer life to glorify God, strengthen your soul, encourage God's people, intercede for other believers, and defeat Satan's attacks against every individual Christian and the whole Church of Christ.
—Pastor S. Henry
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A LIFE OF GRATITUDE
“…giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.”
—Colossians 1:12
THE ESSENCE OF the Christian life is gratitude. The Christian is called to be thankful to God in all things. The Apostle Paul exhorts believers to practice “giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 5:20). And in 1 Thessalonians 5:18 believers are commanded to “give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.” How can believers be unthankful when the Scriptures tell us that we have been delivered from Satan, sin, and Hell by the person and work of Jesus Christ? How can believers be unthankful when God has promised that “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28)?
BELIEVERS NEED TO realize their inheritance in Jesus Christ, and how we have received full pardon of all our sins because of the atoning work of Jesus Christ. The more we think on these things the more thankful we will become as God's redeemed people, and then the more praise we will render to God for the salvation in His Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Would you consider yourself to be a thankful person? If you struggle to give thanks to God in everything and in all circumstances, then you need to meditate more often on the person and work of Jesus Christ. You need to think about the truth that Christ has fulfilled all the righteous demands of the law so that believers, by true faith, might stand in His imputed righteousness before a Holy God; and you need to reminisce on how Christ has covered the sins of every believer in His precious blood before the Throne of God so that they might be received into God’s favor and adopted as His dear children.
GIVEN THESE TRUTHS, it is clear to see that there is no room in the Christian life for an unthankful heart. “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him and bless His name. For the LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations” (Psalm 100:4-5).
Tuesday Encouragement: October 15, 2024
In Christ,
Pastor S. Henry
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CHRISTIAN LOVE, PT. 5
“Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another.”
—Romans 12:8-9
“Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another.” The Apostle Paul describes Christian love as being selfless and self-giving. It’s a love that focuses on others and is concerned for their well-being and comfort. That’s what it means to be kindly affectionate. This is really a call to not think of ourselves more highly than we ought (Rom. 12:3), but in humility of mind esteem others better than ourselves. That’s what it means to give preference to others. As Jesus said, “I did not come to be served, but to serve and give My life a ransom for many” (Matt. 20:28).
Our text calls every one of us who confesses Christ to manifest this love to one another because of what God has done for us in Christ. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service” (Rom. 12:1). God the Father demonstrated His love towards us by pouring out His wrath on His only begotten Son in our place. And Christ demonstrated His love for the Father and His Church by suffering hell on the cross. Christ is the only One who fully and completely loved as Scripture commands! That’s why we must cling to Him and pray that He fills us with His Holy Spirit in order that we might truly love in a manner that glorifies Him. “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:10-11). Amen!
—Pastor S. Henry
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CHRISTIAN LOVE, PT. 4
“Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another.”
—Romans 12:8-9
The Apostle Paul says in our text to "Abhor what is evil." To abhor means to detest or despise. And Paul writes in the present tense in the Greek, which means a continual action. Every believer is commanded to keep on continually detesting and avoiding all evil. 1 Thess. 5:22, “Abstain from every form of evil.” Evil is anything that violates God’s commandments. The Apostle Paul lists some evil activities in Galatians 5:19-21: “adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like.” And we can only abhor and abstain from evil by “Clinging to what is good." The Greek verb “to cling” comes from a root word that means “glue or cement.” 1 Cor. 6:17, “he who is joined [glued] to the Lord is one spirit with Him.” In the same way, we must be continually glued to what is good and worthy. Philippians 4:8, “whatever things are true, noble, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous, and praiseworthy.” Stick to these things like glue. And we do that by not “being conformed to the ways of this world, but by being transformed by the Word of God in order that we might prove the will of God.” Pray for the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in your life and when you fall short of living to God’s glory, confess it to the Lord and continue to keep on looking to and rejoicing in the person and work of Jesus! He alone is the Savior who keeps all His sheep secure!
—Pastor S. Henry
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